Don’t look for Celtics[1] center Kendrick Perkins[2] to be suiting up for the New Zealand national basketball team ‘ the ‘Tall Blacks’ ‘ anytime soon.

Perkins’ estranged father Kenny Perkins lives in New Zealand and was a veteran of that country’s National Basketball League in the 1980s and 90s. However, a few days after New Zealand men’s basketball assistant coach Dillon Boucher said Perkins could play for their national team if he met FIBA eligibility criteria, his father said the Celtics’ big man will never play for the Tall Blacks[3].

‘He has no intention of playing for the Tall Blacks ‘ not now or ever,’ Kenny Perkins told the Waikato Times. ‘They tried this a long time ago when Tab Baldwin was the coach and I would never let him play for Tab Baldwin.

‘His main goal is to play for the United States.’

Perkins is currently out of action for six months with a knee injury suffered in Game 6 of the NBA finals[4] against the Lakers.